Office Hours
by Kinsdura
Summary: Kurapika had transferred to a new work department under Chrollo's management where he is continuously confused by the older man's intentions and Chrollo has no idea how to handle anything dealing with his own emotions.
1. What are they?

_A one-shot that was supposed to be more nsfw than it turned out... I just ended up wimping out of it and making it more fluffy and psychological than intended... haha whoops. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!_

* * *

It had been a while since Kurapika last worked at the main office building, usually preferring to stay home and cram all of his work into one long binge, but he supposed the change of setting was a little nice, albeit the fact that a few of his fellow office workers didn't know how to react to him being there. He kept to himself in his office, and every now and then people had stopped in the hall when they saw his light on and watched him for a few minutes through his office window before leaving and coming back with someone else. After about three or four rounds of their petty game, Kurapika got up and shut the blinds looking into his office and made sure that a black piece of paper covered the window of his door too. Sighing, he returned back to his work at his desk, typing away at his laptop while looking at his desk computer every few sentences to verify the information he was typing.

Minutes ticked by into hours until he heard a knock at his door, bringing his attention from his work. He quickly glanced at the clock and noted that it was 10:23. He should have been headed home already, since most everyone had left.

"Come in." he called instead, deciding to ignore the time as he continued to type. He'd rather get it done with as quickly as possible before the next load of work came in.

"If you keep working like this, you know you're going to get yourself sick right?" a smooth voice said as he heard the door open and close behind the new person.

"Chrollo, I could care less if I get a cold over work or not." Kurapika replied steely, eyes narrowing at the words in front of him, trying to feign the concentration he had lost when the man had stepped into his office.

"Oh don't be that way Kurapika, I mean no harm by what I said!" Chrollo replied with a smile, moving to stand in front of his desk, placing both hands onto the wooden surface. "Besides, you look like you need a break you over achiever."

"I'm not an overachiever, I'm just doing my job. That is, unlike _someone_ who seems to be unable to find something else to do with his time besides bother me." Kurapika retorted, taking a quick glance at Chrollo to emphasize his point. The older man just raised an eyebrow at him, his grin growing on his face.

"You need to find some way to take a break, but I have a feeling I won't be able to convince you to no matter what." He mused out loud, acting like he was thinking, though Kurapika already knew that tone very well despite being in this department for only a few months; he had a plan and he was trying to get it into motion, he was just missing the blonde's consent.

Even though Kurapika didn't know of his motives, he decided to go along with it to see where it got him. It could at least serve to entertain him before having to go back to work.

"It sounds like you have an idea of how I can take a break and still work Chrollo."

"You can still work if you have a strong enough will power." Chrollo replied with a low voice that caught Kurapika off guard, causing him to look up at the man hovering over his desk, their faces only inches apart, Chrollo having a knowing look in his eyes, telling the blonde that the older man was getting exactly what he was after.

Kurapika felt his mouth become dry, and while he had realized he had stopped typing his report, he couldn't bring himself to continue or to really care. He was more focused on the intense eyes searching his own as if they could uncover the world's secrets to the dark haired man.

Then Chrollo leaned forward and pressed his lips firmly against Kurapika's, humming when Kurapika gasped at his action. The older man took the chance he was given and slid his tongue into the other's mouth, resulting in a squeak as the blond's hands found way to his chest only to slide quickly to his shoulders.

Kurapika pushed himself away from Chrollo, his office chair rolling backwards with him and helping in separating them by a couple feet. He could feel that his face and ears were bright red, the pounding of his heart making it near impossible for him to understand what Chrollo was saying next.

"My my, you act like you've never kissed anyone before." He said teasingly, eyes dark and staring at him in a way Kurapika didn't understand, didn't _want_ to understand.

"Go fuck yourself Lucilfer." Kurapika said heatedly, wiping at his mouth when he had realized he had some saliva on the bottom corner of his lip.

Chrollo paused with surprise at his response, but soon his shocked expression was replaced with an amused one, one Kurapika wanted to slap off his face.

"So you're telling me that at age 24 you're still a virgin?" he snickered, placing a curled hand near his face, turning his head to look the other way as he laughed.

Kurapika stood from his chair abruptly and marched over to the dark haired man in the few feet that distanced them, grabbed his tie and yanked him down so that he was eye level with the blonde. Though this had forced Chrollo onto his desk slightly he didn't care in the least at that moment. He glared at the older the man, the amused look the older man had never leaving his face, and it seemed to be pleasantly interested in what he was going to do next. They both stayed like that for a while, Chrollo awkwardly half sitting on the desk and Kurapika staring him down, each of them trying to figure out the other's next move.

Kurapika moved first, moving away and releasing the tie and watching it fall back onto the other's chest, trying to recollect his thoughts. He really shouldn't have been so angry about the accusation, despite it being true. So what if he had never had sex? He had never cared before, but something about the way Chrollo had said it ticked him off. No, maybe it was just the fact that it was _Chrollo_ saying it. He didn't think any of his associates would need to know this, but the fact that the older man just seemed so _amused_ by guessing it, and nonetheless getting it _right_ , felt something akin to getting his pride trampled. He knew he shouldn't care, _knew_ he acted out of place, but yet every time something slipped past that man's mouth, he wanted to prove him wrong with as much strength as he could. But now? He was trapped. He couldn't prove him wrong without lying, and that was just as frustrating as seeing that very man sitting on his desk and watching him like this was some kind of game.

'Sickening yet intriguing' were the words he would describe it if he was being honest with himself.

"If this is all you wanted to do, then leave, I have work to do." Kurapika managed, doing his best to keep eye contact with Chrollo.

The older man hummed with a smile still plastered on his face, adjusting his position on the desk to be more comfortable all while maintaining eye contact with Kurapika. It didn't seem like he was planning on leaving any time soon and Kurapika sighed inwardly to himself, making a mental note to never open his office door for others again unless the building was on fire. Even then, he thought, he'd rather jump out the window behind him then have the possibility of encountering Chrollo at his door, _especially_ during any type of emergency.

Kurapika decided the safest course at this point was to ignore him. He wasn't going to move and chances were that he'd probably just watch him do his work, but he had no way of getting him out without force, and even then he wasn't sure if he could beat the older man in any sort of physical struggle.

He sat back in his chair and rolled it back over to his desk, doing his best to avoid Chrollo's stare as he got back to typing. It was a lot harder to concentrate, but he got in a few paragraphs before he saw Chrollo slide off the front of his desk. He almost sighed in relief but then realized that Chrollo was just walking around to his side of the desk.

 _Great._

"Why can't you just leave already?" Kurapika heard himself say in frustration, though he was already able to work better on his report now that Chrollo wasn't directly in his line of sight.

"Hmm, well for one, it's pretty hard to read what your typing when looking at it sideways, and two because I already said that I would help give you a break." the taller man's voice came, his breath brushing past Kurapika's neck.

He suppressed the urge to shiver and instead raised an eyebrow to himself and kept typing.

"So you're saying that little stunt you pulled that made me lose about twenty minutes of work time wasn't my break?"

Chrollo laughed behind him, a genuine laugh that he could tell the older man was trying to hold back on, and placed his hands on Kurapika's shoulders, causing his work to come to a halt.

"That was only around ten to twelve minutes of time wasted, but no, that was _not_ what I had in mind, though if you want, I can always do it again."

Kurapika felt his blush returning to his face but ignored it and forced his mind to keep working so he could respond in some sort of dignified way.

"I'd rather you be where I can see you, but at the same time I don't want to see you at all, so if you're going to do this at all…" Kurapika started and then faltered, because what he was saying didn't make much sense at all. Keeping Chrollo in his peripheral vision but not wanting to see him there sounded just as strange as saying someone liked chocolate but didn't like eating it.

There was a long pause before Kurapika resumed his thought process, though it was on a different track than beforehand.

"Besides, you said I could still work during your said "break," but I don't see how that's possible given that what you did earlier prevented me from even typing! And even if I _could_ keep typing, there is no way I can look to verify the information on the computer!"

Chrollo only chuckled as he slid in front of Kurapika's way, blocking the computer screens from his sight and forcing him to look up at the taller man lest he wanted to stare at his belt.

Once Chrollo knew he had Kurapika's attention, he smiled at him, his eyes glinting with deviance.

"I said, you'd be able to work if you had a _strong enough will power_."

And with that, he began to kneel in front of Kurapika, placing his hands on the blond's knees as he lowered himself down.

Immediately Kurapika stopped the older man's descent, gripping his shoulders tightly with an intense blush already on his face.

"Wait, I don't think- that shouldn't be done here-"

The blonde kept stuttering, trying to relay how it'd be impractical, or how it _really_ wasn't appropriate especially given the time and place, and Chrollo let him much to Kurapika's relief.

He ended up asking the older man questions, mostly to make sure that this wasn't just to tease him, but also to make sure that his intentions were true and not just for pleasure.

"Are you sure about this?"

"I am."

"And you're not in a relationship already?"

"No."

"This isn't for a joke right?"

"Not at all."

"This won't be as coworkers will it?"

"Nope."

"And not as friend's either?"

"I don't think you consider me that, so no."

"So what would it be as?"

There was a pause between the two, and it seemed to catch Chrollo off guard. He went into thought for a while before shaking his head, his eyebrows still furrowed as he attempted to think of an answer.

"I wouldn't know."

If only to spare the man before him from his surely looping brain process, Kurapika asked another question, one that he had thought of on the spot.

"Then what exactly are we?"

Chrollo looked up at him again, this time his eyes showing surprise at the question.

"We?"

"Yes," Kurapika nodded, trying to figure it out himself. "What exactly are we to each other? We may be coworkers, but that doesn't apply very well to this situation. If taken out of this work space, we are nothing but acquaintances. At the same time however, we are more acquainted to each other than that to be just that either."

Chrollo nodded at what he was saying, understanding what he was trying to get at.

"And despite us not being lovers, I have kissed you a few times as well." Chrollo added, referencing back to when Kurapika was first introduced to the office and the older man had teased him with a kiss on the cheek when he had welcomed him to the department, and later on after that a kiss on the forehead for luck on his first presentation and a kiss on his ear when he had managed to get a promotion within his first week there. Chrollo even momentarily remembered when he had found the Kurta in his (then) new office asleep at the computer on the first night after his promotion due to working over into the morning, and he had given him a kiss on the head and a blanket over his shoulders. It was a fond memory, but Chrollo never thought of them as being in a romantic relationship before.

He saw Kurapika blushing at the memory of their most recently shared kiss and Chrollo chuckled, bringing the blonde's attention to him.

"Then maybe we're dating." Chrollo stated, the words feeling more natural then he would care to admit.

Kurapika just stared at him for a split second before shaking his head frivolously.

"That's impossible! We can't have started dating without even one of us knowing! Even so, that seems a bit ridiculous to just jump from… whatever we are, to dating!"

"Well we're certainly not rivals, and as far as I know, we're not enemies, and the only thing left that I can think of is either the dating thing or that we're soulmates."

Kurapika wrinkled his nose at the last word, not sure why he didn't quite like the idea.

"The last one wouldn't really make sense Chrollo."

"Yes, but none of this situation really makes sense if you think about it. I was about to give you a blow job in your office while you finished your report and now we're contemplating our relationship status with an odd amount of concentration."

Kurapika pushed his hands into Chrollo's face, his own face burning up yet again with his blush.

"How can you even say that so casually?! You really need to learn when to shut up Lucilfer, or I swear to God I will force you to shut up and then kick you out of this office!"

"I think it'd be worth it if you shut me up with your di-"

"You are so lewd oh my God!" Kurapika laughed, pushing at the other's face even more to mess up the last word of his sentence to sound more like the word "dish" than anything else.

Chrollo found himself laughing again too. It truly was fun to mess with Kurapika, but it only added onto the question: what were they really? He wished he knew of a word to describe them, but he sadly could not think of anything. He would guess they were friends at the least, especially given that they can at least tolerate each other enough to make each other mad and tease each other of ridiculous things; despite the teasing part currently being one sided at the moment. He however, felt it would be wrong to call him a friend. There was clearly a different feeling to how he felt towards the blond that was beyond that of what would be appropriate for one labeled a friend, but he couldn't quite pinpoint it.

He shook his head and stood up, smiling to himself. He looked at the time that was displayed on Kurapika's laptop and frowned a bit when he saw that it was already 11:31, way past the time he had intended to leave this building at. Though, thinking on it, he wasn't even sure if he had even really expected to leave any earlier anyway, despite how far his plans had been skewed.

"I think that's all for today." He said more to himself than to Kurapika, but he saw the blonde nod in the corner of his vision.

"Yeah." He heard him say, his voice soft with tiredness.

Chrollo looked over at him and smiled, relieved that all the weird tension he purposefully built up had disappeared from the other's worries. He himself didn't even want to remember how embarrassing he was.

"And you too. You need to go home and sleep."

Kurapika gave him a shocked look, one that basically told him that his idea was stupid.

"I need to finish my report still."

"But you also need to sleep." Chrollo added, closing Kurapika's laptop. "And you're not taking this with you to continue working either.

Kurapika gaped at him, shock obvious on his face.

"What? You don't need to finish this until _next week_. I think you could use a little bit of sleep."

Kurapika looked like he was about to protest, but instead tried to take his laptop, in which Chrollo swiftly took out of his reach, holding it high above his head.

"If you're not going to go home and sleep willingly, I will take you to my house and _give_ you a reason to feel tired and sleepy."

While Chrollo expected another shocked look, he instead got an odd smile from the blond, a dark glint in his eyes.

"Is that a challenge Chrollo Lucilfer?"

The dark haired man paused, then smiled, lowering the laptop from the air just a fraction.

"Maybe it is… would you care to find out yourself?"

Kurapika only chuckled darkly at his response and stood up out of his chair and pushed Chrollo out of his way, shutting down his desk computer and pushing in his chair in one swift motion, waiting patiently until the light of the computer screen shut off before turning to Chrollo, an amused smile on his lips.

"Yes, yes I would."


	2. Legolas but not

_Aha! You thought this was over! And so did I! I honestly didn't think I would continue this but I did, and it even updated before my Phantom Thief Lucifer one, surprising! Ah well, couldn't stop imagining more scenarios for this so it couldn't be helped really._

 _My only reasoning for continuing this before anything else is because this is somewhat timed. You'll see what I mean by that when you get near the end, but I hope you enjoy this! (Also, I'm not sure how long I want to make this, but I do know of some sort of definite ending that I want, so this isn't without any direction, promise!)_

* * *

The next morning, Kurapika and Chrollo walked in the office together only to be met by the eyes of the whole room.

"So, Kurapika! Heard you and Chrollo had some fun last night!" one of their coworkers said, walking up to them with a pleased smile on his face. Kurapika quickly recognized him as Morgan Merryweather, the employee of the month before his arrival at the department.

"Actually, we marathoned the Lord of the Rings trilogy." Kurapika supplied easily, briefly stopping to make eye contact with the brown haired man. "It was quite fascinating really. I enjoyed watching Legolas' scenes the most."

Morgan stopped his ridiculous saunter and gaped at him, looking behind him to where Chrollo was.

"Yeah, we watched them till six this morning." Chrollo chimed in behind him, placing a hand on his head. "He's basically an expert on the series though."

"Wait a second." Morgan said, blocking Kurapika's way to his office. "You said you stayed up till six? Doesn't the whole trilogy takes nine hours to complete?"

"Yes, but I had already watched the first movie and read the books, so I see no problem in only watching the last two movies." Kurapika said, moving the man's arm out of his way. "Now if you'll excuse me, I would like to finish this report early so I will have enough time to schedule the office meeting for this week."

Morgan watched the blonde walk off before turning his head over to Chrollo.

"Explain yourself bro."

"Explain what? The fact that I have the Lord of the Rings trilogy on hand? Simple. I loved reading the books and so I decided to buy myself the set for Christmas last year. You, on the other hand, have to explain why you thought we were going to do more than that."

Morgan's face paled and he looked down at the ground, hands fumbling together as he tried to formulate an answer.

"I, well I heard the last few words you guys exchanged last night and I presumed-"

"Ah, so you were up later than that over achiever? Impressive, but jumping to the wrong conclusions could get you in trouble Morgan." Chrollo said, smiling at him in an unnerving way.

Morgan looked over his shoulder and sighed as another coworker walked up grinning. "I already have."

"I told you they would never fuck Morgan!" they said, smiling broadly. "Now fork over the mullah, mama has some things she wants to buy for her hubby!"

Morgan sighed and reached into his pocket, pulling out his wallet to hand over some money.

"Here you go Stevie. As promised, your fifty dollars and as promised, I won't bother you for the rest of today."

Stevie just laughed and slapped his back, making both Morgan and Chrollo wince. Morgan from the pain and Chrollo from hearing the loud _thwack_ it made.

"That's the spirit Morgan! Tell me when you want to make a bet again, I like playing with you!" She said before walking away, money in hand.

There was a long pause before Chrollo turned to Morgan, a sympathetic smile on his face now.

"That's rough buddy."

"Tell me about it."

"Do you have enough money for lunch today?"

"Uh, probably, not…" Morgan sighed, looking at his wallet sadly and putting it back in his pocket. "But I'll be fine! I'll probably just steal everyone else's food when they're not looking."

"If you say so." Chrollo shrugged, walking off to his own office. He did have work to do, but it wasn't any urgent business, so he figured he could have time to think about the events that had played out within the last twelve hours.

He and Kurapika had returned from the office to his house, watched the last two movies of the Lord of the Rings series then fell asleep on the living room couch. The situation may have seemed simple to other people's outside views but it still befuddled him how exactly they had gotten there in the first place.

They weren't anything special, nothing that couldn't be seen in other relationships, but even in their half dazed states after the last movie's credits had started to play, they had sat on the couch mumbling about their predicament. The topic never stayed on track though since they ended up talking about how everyone was inevitably connected to each other, fragmented memories of things they've long forgotten the meaning to, and hopes of rekindling friendships in favor of newer and better memories, which had prompted the conversation to circle back to the ties you might have with people across the globe, even to those you might only have met in passing on the street. It was mind boggling and didn't even come close to solving the question they had for each other.

Chrollo opened the door to his office and walked in, making sure it firmly closed behind him, dropping the blinds in front of the small window of the door. He sat in his desk chair and stared off into a random corner of the ceiling. His mind wandered back to when they both woke up after hearing Chrollo's alarm clock go off in the other room...

 **~.o.~**

"What time is it?" he heard a someone sleepily mumble, his own eyes flashing open at the unfamiliar tune of another person's voice being the one to wake him up.

Chrollo looked over towards the noise but saw nothing but darkness, his mind reminding him that Kurapika had indeed slept over. He ignored his wandering thoughts though as his ears vaguely registered that the alarm clock going off in his bedroom was annoying, the beeping noise still loud even in the living room. _Really_ annoying.

He grunted in response to the previously asked question, getting up from his spot on the couch to go find a clock. Walking into the kitchen, he waited for his eyes to adjust to looking at the small digital numbers shown on his microwave to figure out the time. 7:15.

Sighing, he turned on the lights and went over to make himself coffee, setting it up to make a few cups more than usual just to make sure he had enough to make it through the work day. He heard shuffling behind him and mostly ignored it before thinking that maybe Kurapika might want some coffee too. He turned around only to have a miniature heart attack at the sight of the blonde wearing one of his overly large t-shirts. Kurapika looked tired but almost adorably so, making Chrollo turn away quickly if only so that his coworker couldn't see him blushing. He took a deep breath, telling himself that _yes, Kurapika was wearing shorts underneath that_ and that _no, he did not think of anything even slightly inappropriate_.

The dark haired man cautiously looked back at the blonde, the shorter man yawning into his hand and his hair ruffled to the left side of his head, again making Chrollo have to tell himself that _no, it doesn't look like they had sex because everyone with short hair has bed head after sleeping._

"It's 7:15." Chrollo stated dumbly, unsure of how to even start a conversation with someone in the morning.

Kurapika cracked an eye open to look at Chrollo then at the microwave clock, nodding his head in understanding. They stood there for a while, no one moving an inch and the beeping sound from the alarm clock in his room getting increasingly noticeable as the time crawled by.

Eventually Kurapika turned around to head back to the living room, in which Chrollo felt the need to call out if he wanted coffee, but became self conscious immediately and decided to let the blonde walk out of the kitchen undisturbed. He busied himself instead with making a poor excuse for breakfast, which was only scrambled eggs, sprinkled with some cheddar cheese, wrapped in a tortilla. He made one for himself and another for Kurapika, figuring the other would at least want breakfast if not coffee. He noticed the beeping sound had stopped and silently thanked that Kurapika had gone and turned it off, knowing he probably would've let it go on until he had to leave.

He placed Kurapika's egg burrito on a plate, putting it on the kitchen bar and eating his own without a plate while fixing himself his first cup of coffee. He turned around with his mug of coffee and saw the blonde come in, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders like a cape.

"Going to Mordor?" Chrollo questioned jokingly, enjoying the small smile that Kurapika made at him.

"If Mordor happens to be where my suit is, then yes." Kurapika said back, amusement in his voice.

Chrollo's eyes widened slightly and set his mug down on the counter and his half eaten burrito on the skillet again.

"I actually forgot about that! Yeah I got it just hold on a second, I hung it up in my closet so it wouldn't get wrinkled." he said, rushing out of the kitchen. "Also, the burrito on the bar is yours!" he called back, opening the door to his room and went towards his closet, pulling out his own suit for the day and grabbing Kurapika's as well.

He carried both of them out and placed them on the dining table across from the kitchen, making sure they didn't have any wrinkles in them.

"You wanna borrow a tie so that it looks like you're not wearing the same thing two times in a row?" Chrollo asked, finding the blonde to be sitting on the kitchen counter and eating his burrito. He seemed to dwell on the question before shrugging and swallowing the bite he was chewing.

"Doesn't matter to me."

Chrollo raised an eyebrow at him but did no more than that as he went to grab his coffee. He took a few sips before walking out of the kitchen again to tidy up the living room area. He folded some blankets before throwing them over the back of the couch, not really caring where they ended up. He ignored the dvd cases that were left out on the table and pushed some of the snack food wrappers together in a clump and told himself he would get it later. He found Kurapika's tie from yesterday on the edge of the table (thankfully not wrinkled) and brought it back to the kitchen table to put on top of Kurapika's suit.

He came back to Kurapika already being half dressed with the last of his burrito hanging out of his mouth. Chrollo paused at seeing the sight and had to repress a laugh as the blonde hopped on one foot to keep his balance while putting on his suit pants over his shorts. Chrollo let out a snort when the other almost fell over, and upon seeing the dark haired man standing there, he did fall over, burrito still miraculously intact and in his mouth, his face flushed from embarrassment.

Now Chrollo was bent over laughing hysterically, actual tears forming in his eyes as the other one pouted angrily in his direction, saying nothing as he got up and pulled his pants up properly before finishing off his burrito. When he was done, Chrollo was still laughing, so he marched over to him and pushed him over, the dark haired man still holding onto the sides of his stomach as he landed sideways on the floor.

"I'm sorry! It was just, I couldn't help but watch!" was all Chrollo could get out before the blonde started to kick at him lightly, the older man rolling onto his front to avoid getting kicked in the face. "Alright alright I'll stop laughing! You could've just used the bathroom to change in you know!"

Kurapika paused his foot above him, and after some consideration, kicked him over to his side and then walked away in a huff, grabbing the rest of his suit from the table and walking over to the bathroom. He stopped at the doorway then turned to Chrollo, his face still a little red from blushing earlier.

"Hey, if you can't finish all of the coffee, I'll have some." he commented, looking at the floor when Chrollo's eyes met his.

"You like coffee then?"

"Not really, but it's better than nothing." he replied nonchalantly, swaying in his spot. "Especially since we've only had one hour of sleep."

Chrollo grinned.

"That's true. We leave in about five or ten minutes by the way."

Kurapika nodded and went inside the hallway bathroom, closing the door behind him. Chrollo sighed and got up from the floor, brushing himself off from some dust on the floor. He really needed to vaccuum soon.

He got his own suit and quickly put it on in his room, grabbing his own tie and throwing it around his neck, noting as he went that they would be leaving in six minutes.

He took his time with finding his shoes knowing how much time he had and found them by the front door. Slipping them on, he noticed that Kurapika didn't have his tie and sheepishly handed it over, almost forgetting that he had had it. After Kurapika tied his tie and convinced Chrollo to let him tie his for him, they headed out early, taking an extra cup of coffee with themselves in thermos.

Chrollo had thought they made pretty good time, but it turns out everyone had sort of the same idea to coming early that day, probably to get in their office hours before Christmas day so that they could spend time with their families. Either way, Kurapika and Chrollo were faced with having to greet everyone on that floor at the same time.

It didn't turn out badly at all in all honesty, and in fact, it was kind of humorous, despite it being at the expense of Morgan-

"Hey Chrollo, do you mind looking over what we're supposed to be doing this week?"

Chrollo snapped out his trance and looked at the door, seeing only a dark figure standing in the doorway but still recognizing the voice as Kurapika's.

"No, go away, I'm busy." he said, looking down at his desk only to see that he hadn't even pulled out papers to even pretend like he was preoccupied with them. _Smooth move Chrollo_ was all he could think as he felt the other's judging eyes lock onto him.

"Lies Lucilfer. All you do is sit in here and brood in this dark office of yours." the blonde said, throwing a stack of papers onto Chrollo's desk into the off white color of the lamp light. "Also, you look like some terrible anime father when you put your hands in front of your face when you're thinking."

Chrollo laughed at this, grabbing the stack of papers in front of him whilst still keeping them in the light.

"I assure you, I would not make that terrible of a father. In fact, I am a very successful _godfather_ , thank you very much."

"Oh wow, impressive. Someone would actually trust you with their child?" Kurapika teased, sitting on the edge of Chrollo's desk.

Chrollo just hummed in confirmation, reading the list that the other had made. It basically confirmed all the projects that were being finished by the department, introduced some other new projects, and even got into the holiday party that would take place the week of Christmas.

"Everything looks good so far. Are you going to preplan who does what for the holiday party or are you going to make a sign-up sheet for that?"

"Probably do a sign-up sheet. It's much easier than interviewing everyone for spots."

Chrollo nodded, handing the papers back to Kurapika.

"And are you thinking about teaching people Elvish while you're at it?" Chrollo asked, watching Kurapika's face turn a bright pink.

"Just because I taught myself how to speak and write Elvish at an early age doesn't mean I'm going to go spreading it around!" Kurapika said back exasperatedly, rolling the files into a cylinder in frustration.

"Sure sure, keep telling yourself that Legolas. Didn't stop you from reciting Shakespeare lines in it last night though."

Kurapika hit him on the top of the head with the rolled up files sharply, causing the older man to rub at his head.

"Alright I got it, no elf lessons! At least it's finished early though, just like your report I assume?"

"Yes, I turned it in before I started this list." the blonde said back with a smile of satisfaction.

Chrollo smiled back at him without knowing exactly why, and nodded his head in approval.

Kurapika hopped off his desk and walked back towards the door, switching the lights on suddenly, making Chrollo squint at the younger man.

"What the heck Kura-"

"It's better for your eyes." was the only response he got before the blonde opened the door and disappeared out into the hall.

Chrollo sat there for a while waiting for his eyes to get used to the light, only looking down at his desk when he felt confident enough that he wouldn't get dizzy in doing so. He then pulled out the files he had been working on previously, filling out blanks that were left open mindlessly. His mind wandered back to the list he had just read and smiled. He was looking forward to the holiday party.


	3. Braids and Decision

_This was supposed to be updated a week ago but I lost my nerve while writing it and stepped away for a few days before I came back an finished it all yesterday. I apologize for the wait and hope that this chapter is satisfactory!_

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

Not even a week later Kurapika found that his workload continued to lessen the closer it got to Christmas. He couldn't help but feel both relieved and a little sick at the fact that he had so little left to do with the year. There was now less things he could use as an excuse to escape from his life.

Kurapika was currently taking a stack of papers from the printer and arranging them into a manilla folder next to him. The blonde flicked through the pages quickly, counting twenty in total. Satisfied, he nodded to himself and began walking back to his office, noticing that Chrollo's workspace didn't produce any light from it, telling the blonde that the other had yet to arrive at the department. _Odd that he would be late_ Kurapika thought to himself, straightening the papers in his hand.

He was about to head into his own office when he heard the elevator doors open, causing him to pause.

Looking back he saw Chrollo walk onto the department floor, though something seemed off about him. Kurapika realized what was wrong as soon as he stepped into the fluorescent lighting. He was almost unsure of how to react: Chrollo's hair was braided in an almost strategic sort of randomness around his head. Kurapika stood staring, trying to urge himself not to because he knew it was rude, but he couldn't look away, and apparently neither could his coworkers.

"Trying to start a new fashion statement Chrollo?" one of them piped up, walking up beside him, holding up one of the braids by their end.

Chrollo swatted the offending hand away, clearly embarrassed.

"Nothing of the sort, I wouldn't do this to myself." he huffed, trying to look as nonchalant about it as possible.

"Oh? Then who would? Who could make the all mighty boss of the Eighth Department bow on his knees I wonder?" they asked dramatically, earning a small snicker to arise from those watching.

"My goddaughter." the dark haired man answered, only managing to walk a few more feet forward before seeing Kurapika, to which he smiled sheepishly at him. "She wouldn't let me leave the house if I didn't keep it in."

"Is that why you're so late?" Kurapika asked, smirking at the taller man, amused by the idea of a small child having so much power over him.

"Yeah." Chrollo shrugged, looking everywhere but Kurapika, trying not to blush.

Kurapika couldn't help but genuinely laugh at the situation, hiding behind his papers as if it would somehow conceal how giddy it made him feel. When he felt the laughter die out to just small giggles, he looked up to see Chrollo looked a little shocked, some of his coworkers even looking over at him out of curiosity.

"What?" he asked, still smiling, wondering what had caused everyone to look at him that way.

"You laughed." one of his coworkers pointed out, others agreeing with them.

"Yes, and?" Kurapika asked, beginning to feel self conscious underneath all of the gazes he was receiving.

"You have _never_ la-"

"It's a good thing is all." Chrollo said, interrupting them and shooting over a look. He turned back and smiled at Kurapika, now noticing the papers in his hands. "What might those be?"

"Huh? Oh, these! They're for the new edifice project that starts in January. It concentrates on the building of the next few developmental centers, so these papers will be redirected to the architecture and construction departments once we're done looking them over."

Chrollo nodded wordlessly, seeming to have some idea on what he was talking about.

"Will that be the first project of the new year?" he asked, propping a hand on the wall next to Kurapika as the blonde showed him the files he had in hand.

"Yes, I think so. Unless they decide to send us some more projects to organize and host, I don't think we'll have to deal with more work anytime soon." he confirmed, handing the top paper to Chrollo, who took and it and skimmed over the brief summary given on it.

Again, Chrollo nodded, handing the paper back to Kurapika as he began to walk off.

"Well good work with it, it looks great so far!" the dark haired man said encouragingly, already turning away before Kurapika could really think of what he was doing.

"Wait!"

Chrollo turned back to look at him, confusion on his face.

"Yes?"

Kurapika paused, unsure why he had held the older man back. He wanted to tell him never mind and that he had forgotten what he was going to say, but it felt wrong to say that when he didn't even know what he was going to say. Perhaps he had wanted him to stay with him longer, but for what reason? He wiped all thoughts from his head and smiled at Chrollo, unsure how he was able to feel very genuine in the way he did it.

"I actually think your hair looks charming today." he heard himself say, slightly surprised at what he said but more so at Chrollo's reaction.

He was _blushing_. Not too much to be noticeable, but enough to where even his ears were a shade darker than normal. Kurapika decided to ignore it for the older man's sake.

"Thank you. I'll let Taj know that." Chrollo said, coughing to cover up his momentary sign of weakness.

"Taj?" Kurapika questioned, the name sounding a bit foreign.

"It's my goddaughter's name." he answered, smiling as he did. "She's a tiny menace when it comes to having her way but none of us really mind it." he continued, chuckling as one of his hands found its way to tugging at the braids in his hair. "I had to show proof that I got to work intact with these things in. She even demanded that I leave them in till I get home too." he sighed, shaking his head. "A wonder that girl is."

Kurapika couldn't help but smile and laugh again at Chrollo, the blonde pressing against his own office door to hide his face as his hand scrambled to find the doorknob to let himself in. His hand finally found the knob and it swung open hastily, almost taking Kurapika by surprise as he stumbled slightly into his office.

"Sorry about that, it was just amusing hearing that is all." was all the blonde could think of saying, lingering near the door. "I'm sure she's sweet though."

Chrollo had that shocked look on his face again, but it seemed more dazzled than the last time, and Kurapika had to suppress the heat rising in his cheeks along with the idea that _he had caused that reaction._ The look quickly vanished though, and the dark haired man smiled down at him casually.

"She certainly is. Speaking of sweet, I heard that Jordan was making her chocolate chip cookies for the holiday party." Chrollo said, leaning against the wall next to the door. "Think you'll be there to try them?"

The blonde had to pause before he answered. The question had been proposed so smoothly he almost had agreed to it without even thinking about whether he was actually going or not.

"We'll have to see about that." was all he offered as his answer before he closed the door, grateful that he had shut the blinds early. He waited there for a while, as if waiting for something more significant to happen, perhaps for Chrollo to even follow him, but there was nothing.

Kurapika chastised himself in his head, turning back to his desk in a form of disgust. _What? Did you think he'd chase after you? This isn't some fairytale!_ he thought to himself, only to blush at his own embarrassing thought. It wasn't like he _wanted_ Chrollo to follow him, just, maybe try harder at inviting him, maybe? Gah, why did he care about how much effort the other put into it anyway? It's not like he was going anyway... Or maybe he was. He hadn't really decided what he was going to do for sure.

He sat at his desk and got to work with reading the papers he had just printed out, making sure that nothing was missing and that there was no ink smudges on them. Afterwards he got about writing a highlight of the new project and emailing the other departments, successfully spending about two hours of time before he came to the realization that he had nothing else to do that day. He sat awkwardly at his desk, thinking about what he should do now. Without much thought, he got up and walked out of his office, going directly to the cubicle in front of him.

"Oh hey Kurapika!" someone said, their head popping out from their cubicle to greet him. "Have you already finished your work for today?"

"Yeah, I am actually. Would you happen to have any extra work that you might need a hand in Julien?" the blonde smiled sheepishly, already feeling some eyes on him at the news that he had finished his work early. Again.

"Oh wow, impressive! And no, sorry. I'm working on the last thing for today myself, and it's just a really long email I have to send so it's not much you can help on, I'm sorry." Julien replied, swiping back their short black hair out of their face absentmindedly.

Kurapika raised an eyebrow but smiled nonetheless at the other man. "It's fine, I'll find something to do." he said, nodding before he started to walk off.

"Oh wait Kurapika, do you think you'll be going to the holiday party?" he heard them ask behind him, a slight panic in their voice. "It'd be nice if you could come, ya'know?"

Kurapika hummed, looking thoughtful for a second before shrugging. "Still haven't decided yet." he answered truthfully.

"Oh, uh, see you then?" Julien asked, faltering a bit at the end of their question, making Kurapika have the urge to give him another smile.

"Maybe."

Afterwards he ran into Morgan who gave him some the job of running off copies on whatever the brown haired man had been working on. During that time he was asked about going to the holiday party by Jordan, who stealthy tried to convince him to go by asking for a ride there, Morgan, who just outright asked him, and another coworker named Ariena, who said it would help with a video she was making. He hadn't given them definite answers and tried to avoid encountering anyone else who might ask. After all was said and done though, it took him about an hour and half to finish the task he was assigned, and he no longer had anything else to do. Again.

Glancing at his watch he realized he could probably just go home early, noticing that some of his own coworkers had similar ideas, seeing as how Stevie had already packed up most of their stuff into their purse and was bothering someone named Vi who was preoccupied with some game on their computer, seemingly winning due to the reactions coming from the crowd that had formed around their cubicle. Kurapika watched for awhile before realizing that he had a chance slip out of the office without being asked about the holiday party again.

Returning to his office, he gathered his stuff, not bothering to glance at the clock as he walked back out and headed towards the elevator doors.

Vi's game had apparently ended with victory, because the crowd had moved closer to the exit with a ramble of excitement and congratulations. Stevie spotted him from the crowd and called out to him, and while he would've liked to pretend he didn't hear her, it was hard not to when almost everyone in the crowd had turned their attention to him and the short woman.

"Hey Kurapika, Kura-pika! Are you going to the holiday party?"

He felt like muttering something foul under his breath due to being asked about it again but refrained from it, noticing that Chrollo had come out of his office as well to see everyone leaving. It seemed he had also heard the question though, and stood there waiting for his answer as well.

Kurapika looked sideways, hoping to not make eye contact with anyone, and before he could answer them his phone rang, scaring him enough to make him almost drop his phone in the process of getting it out of his pocket. The rest of the room went quiet as the blonde quickly put his phone up to his ear.

Kurapika felt his heart drop at the sight of the callers name, and wanted to ignore the call but knew he would have to answer eventually, so he answered to temporarily get away from answering the now waiting crowd.

"Hello Leorio."

"Hey Kurapika! I was wondering where you've been!" the other man's voice came in through the speakers of his phone too loud, causing Kurapika to hold the phone off of his face so as to not get his eardrums blasted.

"Working Leorio, like normal people do." his answer seemed cold, but he didn't care. The conversation was already becoming annoying.

"Ah, I figured as much! You've always liked putting yourself into your work! But hey, I was wondering if you would want to get together this week! I think Killua and Gon already agreed to coming over on Friday-"

"Sorry, I have something that day." Kurapika quickly interrupted, realizing just exactly what he was getting himself into.

He slowly looked over to the people still politely waiting on him, his coworkers all trying their best not to seem too invested on what was going on in front of them. Kurapika felt his mouth go dry but continued speaking, making eye contact with Chrollo as he did.

"On Friday, I'm going to be participating in the holiday party at my work."

There was silence from the crowd, Leorio, and Chrollo at first, but his coworkers reacted the fastest, small but loud cheers escaping but dying out quickly as others shushed them. Leorio was the next to recover from his statement, coughing somewhere in the background.

"Oh, I see. Well that's good! I'm glad you were able to be comfortable enough to go to one, you used to hate going out and partying in general, so congratulations!"

Kurapika just grunted a response and said a quick goodbye before hanging up and shoving his phone into his back pocket, sighing in relief when he was sure he wouldn't get another call.

He then turned his attention back to the waiting crowd, embarrassed for a reason he couldn't place. Then all at once, everyone rushed forward, spouting words of encouragement, and whether it was because they wanted him to feel better about his decision or they were still drunk over Vi's win, he couldn't tell.

After the crowd finally started to calm down, people went down to the parking lot in groups, the elevator bell dinging whenever it came back up again. Kurapika stood behind, letting people go before him so he could at least have some time to think about the choice he had just made.

One last group went in, Jordan pausing before she stepped into the elevator.

"So, will you be able to give me a ride to the party then?" she asked, an almost smug smile showing on her face before being covered by the scarf she was wrapping around herself.

"Just get going." Kurapika sighed smiling, pushing her on.

The woman grinned and skipped into the elevator, Ariena, Morgan, and a few others greeting her as she joined them. The elevator door shut behind them and their sounds were gone.

"So, what made you decide to come?"

Kurapika yelped at the voice, turning around to see that Chrollo was standing right next to him. The blonde had failed to notice the taller man till now and that made him slightly uneasy.

"I uh, well, everyone seemed to want me to go so I probably would've caved eventually." Kurapika heard himself say, though he could tell the lie didn't go undetected to his boss.

Chrollo hummed and looked over at the elevator, clearly thinking over what was said to him, but then his face became unreadable.

"Why was everyone asking me anyway? It seemed sort of weird how everyone wanted to know if I was coming or not." the blonde wondered out loud, slightly uncomfortable at the silence that had come between them.

"They were all trying to see who could convince you to come was all. They all think of you as part of their office family after all, even though you're not here a lot." Chrollo supplied, watching the number above the elevator reach ground level.

"So what am I? The odd teenager who holes himself up in his room on his phone all day to avoid family?" he joked, glancing at the older man to see his reaction.

His comment got Chrollo to crack a smile.

"That sure would make a lot of sense." he replied, looking down at the blonde. "And Stevie is the wine mom and Morgan is your cousin who is bad at video games."

"Whereas Vi is great at them and Jordan is the baking queen." Kurapika added on smiling.

The air after that seemed pleasant as they exchanged random nicknames and statuses they had given their coworkers. It wasn't until the elevator rung out once again that Kurapika was reminded about the real world.

They both went into the elevator and Kurapika stood by awkwardly as Chrollo pressed the ground level button, causing the elevator doors to shut. It was silent as they rode down, and continued to persist even as they walked through the lobby and out into the parking lot. They began to part ways when Chrollo stopped him, a smile on his face.

"What?" the blonde asked, not sure what else he could possibly add to their conversation earlier.

"I'm glad you decided to go to the party." was all he said before quickly kissing him on the cheek and walking off to his car, an extra pep to his step as he went along.

Kurapika stared after him bringing his hand up to touch the spot where he had been pecked before turning towards his own car and driving out of the car lot and away from his work building. As he drove on, he couldn't get rid of the happy feeling he had gained after his and Chrollo's last exchange of the day, the kiss he had received earning him a fluttery feeling in his stomach that he didn't mind having at all.

Maybe going to the party wasn't such a bad idea after all.


	4. Festive Drama

_Happy Friday guys! Two updates in one week, whew! I wrote this chapter in one night so I apologize if some wording in this seems pretty awkward. In addition, despite my lack of office party knowledge, I believe this went pretty well._

 _Anyway, enjoy!_

* * *

The day of the holiday party had finally arrived, and Chrollo couldn't be more excited. He had even come in early, resulting in him being the first one to arrive, all on the pretense of "making sure all the work was done." Any project left for this year had already been complete, but the satisfaction of checking to see that there was nothing to do was fantastic.

Eventually other people started showing up, each one of them carrying food, decorations, or sometimes both. Morgan told Chrollo he had brought a mistletoe but refused to tell him where he had put it. Despite his curiosity, Chrollo refrained from asking and pretended like he didn't care, so the other man left him alone and went to bother Ariena about it.

After a while, there was a lot of people milling about the department floor; cubicles had been moved a few minutes ago to create a clearing for the party and a table had been set up with food and drinks. Chrollo felt bad for doing nothing but watch; he had no idea what to do. He heard a faint _ding_ to his right and glanced over to see the elevator open for Kurapika and Jordan, both whom were holding two trays each of chocolate chip cookies.

"Sorry for coming a little late boss!" Jordan called out to him, jumping out of the elevator. "I decided I should make them fresh this morning so that they'd be soft, but my timing was a bit off and so I ended up dragging in Kurapika to help me out!"

Kurapika shrugged at her mention of him helping but otherwise said nothing, nodding to Chrollo as his greeting.

"Would you want me to help with carrying that?" Chrollo asked to them both, hoping he would finally look productive that morning.

Jordan politely denied him and then quickly walked past him, seeming to dance around people to get to the snack table. Chrollo turned his attention back to Kurapika, who just handed him a cookie tray and walked after her, not even making eye contact with him.

The black haired man watched the other pass by him, confused by his attitude but followed him to put down the cookies anyway in hopes that he'd be able to get an explanation.

An hour later, the party around him was in full swing, and it turned out that in the break room, Vi had figured out how to use the projector to stream an online game; several people from other departments had brought their laptops to compete through the multiplayer function.

Chrollo stood back and watched for at least thirty minutes before figuring that Vi would probably be reigning champ for the rest of the night. He left the break room to find that the cubicles had been shifted again to form two arcs facing each other, leaving a few feet between each arc to make a passageway to the snack table. Chrollo walked over to it, noticing how most people had settled into their own cubicles and were gossiping about some news from other departments and from themselves.

"So apparently a few people from the education department read one of Stevie's fics and decided to grade it as if it were a fictional essay."

"What? No way man, which one?"

"The one with gay sex I think."

"That's like, half of them."

Laughter arose from the group at that comment, and half the group continued onto another topic of conversation while the other half continued to talk about the graded smut fic. Chrollo couldn't help but laugh at the situation himself but traveled away from the outer ring of the arcs to go the long way around to the snack table. When he got over to it, he noticed that Kurapika was standing with his back against the windows of the printing room, the faint golden glow from the room accenting his figure as if trying to show off the fact that he was actually present at the party.

After grabbing a few cookies from the table he walked over to the blonde and leaned onto the window next to him, handing him a cookie silently. The shorter man took it, wordlessly eating the cookie as they both watched the arc group talk endlessly about interesting articles and stories and the break room group rise up in celebration at yet another victory from Vi.

"So, enjoying yourself?" Chrollo asked after a few more minutes of silence had passed by, wondering if Kurapika was in the mood to talk yet.

The blonde looked over at Chrollo with an unreadable look in his eye before turning his attention to the room in front of them.

"I guess. It's how I imagined it would be, if not more chaotic. Not a bad thing though."

"Well at least you tried it out. You even wore an ugly Christmas sweater." Chrollo replied, poking at the blonde's knitted turtleneck, which wasn't at all ugly but just a regular green, long sleeve with two red zigzags going around it.

Kurapika scoffed, but a smile was on his face now.

"You're not any better." he claimed, pinching at the gray, long sleeve shirt the older man had worn, a poorly printed 'X-MAS' on the front. Chrollo chuckled, swatting his hand off his clothes.

"Oh I'm sorry to disappoint. Didn't know it was fashion week Mr. Kurta." he replied back sarcastically, grinning at the shorter man. "Would my scarf give me extra bonus points?" he asked, tugging at the off-white cloth around his neck.

Kurapika rolled his eyes at the man next to him but didn't answer him, his eyes getting caught on something on the ceiling.

"What is-? Oh damn it all…"

Chrollo followed the other's line of sight and found that they were both staring at a mistletoe that was hidden behind a large ornament, the fake plant covered enough so that Chrollo was sure that no one in the room could spot it unless they were where they were standing.

"I thought Morgan only said he placed _one_ around the office, not multiple." he heard Kurapika mutter under his breath, causing him to look down at them.

"Where else did he put them then?" Chrollo asked, almost aghast that the short brunette had convinced him that there was only one to worry about.

"One is over near the entrance of the break room and another one just before you get to the bathrooms." Kurapika said, pointing to where Chrollo assumed the mistletoes were hidden, since he figured they were probably also as well hidden as the one they were stuck under.

"Well that's nice to know." was all Chrollo said, a quick course of action forming in his head as he turned to Kurapika.

The blonde glanced at him, giving him a suspicious look when he saw that the taller man was smiling.

"Are you planning on trying to get other people under those hidden traps just to see what will happen?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest and turning towards Chrollo as if to stop him from carrying out the ridiculous plan.

"Maybe, but others' reactions isn't what I'm looking for right now."

"Then who-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence, Chrollo having leaned down to kiss him on his lips. He pulled back to see Kurapika gaping him with a shocked expression that he found awfully cute. Not even a second later and he felt something hit him in the back of the head, causing him to close his eyes and his hands reach up to feel a bump already forming on his scalp.

"Ow, Kurapika what was that for?" he whined, standing up straighter as he thought about how he might need an ice pack for his head. Or not.

"I would've been fine with it if you hadn't interrupted me." the blonde said, turning around and huffing, walking over to the snack table.

Chrollo thought on it and nodded thoughtfully, understanding where the other was coming from.

"Okay, that's fair. I deserved that." he said, shrugging in defeat.

"Of course you did." Kurapika said, tossing the taller man another chocolate chip cookie. "And the next time you do that, I'm going to use that scarf of yours to choke you."

"And risk the chance of this pretty face getting damaged?" he asked playfully, joining the other at the snack table.

"I would punch that pretty face." Kurapika said with a laugh, taking a bite of another cookie. "But it wasn't bad, you just could've had better timing."

Chrollo stopped eating his own cookie to stop and stare at the blonde, wondering if he had heard right.

"Not bad?"

"Huh?" Kurapika paused to look over at the taller man, not having caught what he said.

"You said it wasn't bad." Chrollo repeated, watching the others face for a reaction.

"Yes, that is what I said." the blonde said, scrunching his face in confusion. "What of it?"

Chrollo stared at him for a few more seconds before feeling his face break into a smile, his whole body feeling warm.

"Nothing."

He returned to eating his cookie, glancing over the options left on the table, well aware that Kurapika was now staring at him. Chrollo got a small plate and piled a few things onto it before meeting the Kurta's gaze with a smile.

"What is it?"

Kurapika's face twisted in thought before he looked down at the table, his features darkening as his hair blocked some of the lights from his face.

"I'm sorry for how I was acting this morning. I wasn't in the most pleasant of moods when I arrived here."

Chrollo raised an eyebrow, not really expecting the sudden topic change.

"It's no big deal. If you don't mind, would you care sharing why?"

The blonde pursed his lips before sighing, grabbing a plate of his own as he absent mindedly put some food on it.

"Remember how I received a phone call yesterday in front of everyone and I had basically told everyone I was going to the party that way?"

Chrollo nodded, wondering why he was jumping back to the previous day.

"Well it was from an acquaintance of mine that I was friends with. I don't know if we're still friends, but I've been trying to avoid him for a few weeks now, but he keeps on calling me to try and get together and do stuff, but I just can't deal with him right now."

"So that's why you agreed to come here? Because it was another excuse to avoid him?"

Kurapika nodded, brushing some hair out of his face.

"Not that I didn't want to come originally, I just hadn't decided by then and him calling me got me to finally choose." he said, rolling around a cake pop in his hand.

"Why are you trying to avoid him, if you don't mind me asking." Chrollo asked, disliking how negatively Kurapika reacted to his supposed friend.

"Leorio… he… I've suspected that he's had a crush on me for a while, but I never bothered to confirm it, hoping it would just fade away and we could act as friends again, but…" Kurapika trailed off, his gaze falling to the floor now as a flash of pain went across his face.

"He confessed?" Chrollo guessed, hoping that he wasn't pushing too hard for answers at this point.

Kurapika's lips tightened into a thin line.

"Yeah. I panicked and said I would think about it but never got back around to him with my response, and after a week or two I had enough of pretending like he hadn't confessed, so I just started avoiding him altogether."

Silence stretched on between them after that, cheers from the break room and the chatter of the arc group seeming far away in that moment. Everything seemed to slow down, as if trying to help Chrollo compute the information he was hearing.

"Do you like him?" Chrollo heard himself ask, realizing too late that he probably shouldn't have asked it, and was about to say to ignore his question but Kurapika seemed to know his train of thought, placing a hand softly on his arm to stop him from speaking again.

"No, I don't like him, not like that at least. He was my friend and I still want him to be, but he wants more than that and I can't supply what he's looking for. And don't worry, I'm not offended by the question, it's natural to be curious about that sort of thing after all."

Chrollo saw the shorter man wipe at his face with his sleeve, and he felt his heart drop. He wanted to comfort him, but anything he could think of either seemed too formal or informal to do, so he just stood there and watched him cry, feeling guilty at having invoked these feelings in the blonde. At that moment, he was glad for the noise going on around them, because it helped in masking the sniffles and hiccups of Kurapika's crying with all the shouting and laughing from the other people there.

After a while, Kurapika had stopped crying, though his sniffle still remained as he wiped his eyes with a spare napkin.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, I just, I couldn't stop them…" Kurapika said, almost too quiet for Chrollo to hear.

"It's okay, I made you talk about it so it was my fault. I should be apologizing." Chrollo said softly, patting the blonde on the shoulder. "If it helps at all, you can come over to my place for Christmas. My family and I are a bit mismatched, but we all get along alright." he paused then panicked, quickly adding a mumbled "Well, that is if you need an excuse for that day; don't feel pressured to come if you don't want to."

Kurapika stared wide eyed at the snack table before turning to Chrollo, his face disbelieving of his invite.

"Are you sure that's okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine. None of us are actual blood family so bringing in someone else wouldn't disrupt anything at all. Though I can't guarantee you any presents." he said, trying to help lighten the mood a bit.

This got Kurapika to smile, a true genuine smile that made Chrollo's insides get almost uncomfortably fuzzy.

"Thank you Chrollo, the invitation is much appreciated."

Chrollo felt himself smile back despite not understanding why.

"You're welcome. Tell me if you accept so I can at least save some food for you."

Kurapika gave a small laugh, hiding his mouth behind his face.

"Of course. Always have to worry about the food right?"

Chrollo laughed and agreed when in the break room they heard a dramatic 'no!' come from within, Stevie coming out cradling a small object in their hand.

"What happened Stevie? Did one of your favorite characters die again?" Ariena asked, already patting the short woman on the shoulder despite the situation probably being nothing akin to that.

Stevie shook their head and held out two broken clay pieces in their hands.

"My dreidel broke." she stated dramatically, clenching her hands around the remains of it once everyone had gotten at least a quick glimpse at it.

"I told you not to use Play-Doh." Jordan countered, inspecting the pieces Stevie had handed over.

Stevie said something in return, but Chrollo tuned them out, noticing that Kurapika had moved away from him in favor of sitting on the wall outside his own office. Chrollo went over to join him, bringing his snack plate with him.

"Tired already?" he asked when he sat next to the blonde, only to receive an almost accusing look.

"Well I did just cry so yeah, quite a bit." Kurapika sighed, looking up at the streamers that hung around the room.

Chrollo felt bad about reminding the blonde of what had just happened but felt that even if he hadn't said anything that Kurapika would still be thinking about it.

After that, they sat there and ate their treats in silence, only getting up two more times for drinks and more food. Eventually the party wrapped up with Vi winning the tournament in the break room. After a small celebration for their victory, everyone started cleaning up; the process going even faster than the set up due the help of the other departments.

Chrollo had volunteered to take home some food and had managed to convince Kurapika to help him carry out some to his car. The blonde had agreed pretty easily though, probably grateful to get his mind off his own thoughts. On their way down, Chrollo smiled to himself, having felt that the party went significantly well for not having done much with any of the activities.

"What are you smiling about?" Kurapika asked, shifting the food box in his arms as the elevator opened up in the lobby.

"Hmm, trying to imagine you meeting Taj. I bet she'll have you under her control in less than five minutes." he said, nudging the blonde with his elbow.

Kurapika gave him an amused look as they walked out to the parking lot and to his car.

"Five minutes? I'll give her ten minutes. She can't be that cute."

Chrollo unintentionally let out a dark chuckle, causing Kurapika to make a surprised expression on his face.

"Cute is the wrong word. She's powerful and relentless." he said, unlocking his trunk and placing the food in the back. Kurapika followed suit, pausing when Chrollo got into his car.

"I'll try to call you as soon as possible if I do decide on going. I can't make any promises though." he said, looking at his phone to probably set a reminder for himself. "See you later!"

The blonde then sped walk towards his own car, disappearing out of sight quickly as he heard Julien shout across the parking lot calling to Jordan that he could give them a ride back home. Chrollo sat in his car listening to other people leaving for a while before he actually started his departure. He couldn't quite place why he felt better after the party, but he decided that the why wasn't important right now. He just wanted to hold onto the good feeling for as long as he could.


	5. Another Party

_Hey guys! Sorry for the year long hiatus! I am now back and I will try my best to stay consistent with putting out new chapters! No promises though! Anyway I hope you all enjoy this new chapter! Happy December!_

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Kurapika hesitated for a slight moment at the door in front of him, hearing the cheery sounds coming from inside and doubting himself for the first time since he had woken up that morning. Maybe he shouldn't have come. He always could've lied to his friends that he went somewhere for the holiday and then actually stayed home, but instead he found himself awkwardly shifting his weight from foot to foot outside of his boss's house. Before he could start regretting anything, he quickly knocked on the door, retracting his hand almost immediately with intense embarrassment. He _really_ hoped his visit didn't look like a desperate attempt to avoid his life problems, even though it was.

A few seconds later and Chrollo answered the door, the smile on his face and glinting eyes genuine and catching Kurapika off guard for some reason. The darker haired man's features quickly changed to that of celebration to confusion though, blinking a few times before he spoke.

"Kurapika?"

The blonde nodded, attempting to not look down at his feet while speaking but failing to doing so.

"Uh, merry Christmas Eve?" Kurapika asked awkwardly before looking down quickly. "I'm… sorry for dropping by without warning. I didn't really decide to come until this afternoon." he said as casually as he could. Chrollo didn't respond right away, causing the Kurta to look up to see that the other was giving him a warm smile.

"It's alright, I was actually afraid I had scared you off with the invitation." he laughed, scratching at the back of his own neck with a free hand. "Would you like to come in?"

Kurapika nodded again, and then he was motioned inside and greeted by the sight of more people fitting into Chrollo's house than he could have ever imagined. Sure the house wasn't all that small, but it definitely didn't feel like it could fit eleven plus people in it. The next thing he noticed was the smell coming from the kitchen area, a few different festive dishes of food placed all over counter and plastic plates and cups adorning whatever area was left.

"Looks like there is still plenty of food." Kurapika commented in slight amusement, causing Chrollo to chuckle.

"I suppose you're right. Guess I worried for nothing huh?" Chrollo smiled, making Kurapika's heart race for no obvious reason. He looked down quickly, not even paying attention to the food in the kitchen and almost ran into someone while trying to speed away from Chrollo.

"Oh, hello there. Who might you be?"

Kurapika looked up to meet the eyes on an older woman with shoulder length dirty blonde hair, her eyes seeming to go straight through him. He was about to comment but he felt a hand land on his shoulder as Chrollo's voice projected from beside him.

"He's a coworker." he supplied cheerily to the woman, who raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" she asked disbelievingly, but the smile Chrollo was giving her didn't waver.

"Yup! He works in the same department as me, and I invited him over incase he didn't have anything to do." Chrollo said in a way that gave Kurapika a scapegoat in case anyone asked him why he was actually there.

"Hmm, alright." the woman said smiling back, seemingly convinced. She turned to Kurapika and held out her hand towards him. "My name is Pakunoda, it's nice to meet you."

"My name is Kurapika, it's nice to meet you as well." the younger blonde said, taking her hand and shaking it, surprised that her grip on his hand was very tight. He got a feeling that it'd be a very bad idea to ever get between her and something she cared a lot about. He smiled wearily when the shake ended, taking a step back to stand next to Chrollo, finding that he felt more comfortable standing by his side than directly in front of Pakunoda. She smiled at him as if she knew what he was thinking, making him shudder just a bit.

"Oh Machi, come over here." Pakunoda said over her shoulder, waving over another woman, whose hair was longer and an interesting shade of pink. "This is Kurapika, he works with Chrollo."

Kurapika didn't have much else to do other than bow at the one called Machi, who nodded stiffly back, seeming uninterested in his appearance.

"Don't worry, she's always like that." Chrollo whispered to him reassuringly. "In fact you could say this is a positive reaction given she hasn't sneered at you yet."

Kurapika raised an eyebrow but said nothing more as Chrollo helped dismiss them both from the two ladies and directed him into the living room. This is when Kurapika noticed the large Christmas tree stuffed into the far corner of the room, almost uncomfortably close to the tv, a few presents already under it already. The blonde didn't get time to look around more when Chrollo's voice brought his attention back in front of him.

"Now let me introduce you to-"

"Shalnark?" Kurapika asked with disbelief, eyes widening at the sight of the other blonde.

"Kurapika?" Shalnark questioned right back, eyes also widening in a similar fashion.

Kurapika tackled Shalnark into a hug, unsure why he felt so relieved to see him. He felt the other's arms circle around him to squeeze back and all of the awkward tension of being introduced to Chrollo's random family members vanished in that instant.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Chrollo asked behind him, his voice betraying how shocked he was.

"We're related Chrollo! Kurapika is my cousin!" he heard Shalnark answer with a cheery voice, releasing him from their hug. "How do _you two_ know each other?"

"Oh, we're coworkers. He's my boss." Kurapika said, stepping out of Shalnark's personal space, glancing at the people next to his cousin. "Are they your friends?"

The other Kurta nodded, motioning to the taller blonde with slicked back hair and a short Chinese man whom had a small child clinging to his leg. "The tall one is Phinks, the shorter one is Feitan, and the bundle of cuteness down there is Taj!"

At her own mention, Taj puffed out her chest and cheeks, making an angry frown as she did.

"I am not cute! I am indestructible!"

"Aww, where did you learn that big word?" Shalnark cooed at her as the little girl pointed towards Feitan.

"He did, because he's right! You cannot defeat me!"

"Oh no! How scary!" Shalnark cowered jokingly, but Taj took it in stride, crossing her arms over her chest proudly as if she had won some sort of battle.

Kurapika was stifling his laughter behind a hand, coming to an understanding of how she could possibly run the entire household. A true menace when she wanted something, he was sure.

Taj then turned her attention to Kurapika, looking him up and down before a pout set in.

"Who are you?"

"I'm… Kurapika." the blonde said confusedly, seeing the little girl shake her head at his answer.

"No no no! I mean, who are you in my _family_?" Taj asked, clutching at Feitan's long shirt. "He's my Baba, Phinks is my Papa, and Shal is my Dad! But if you're Dad's cousin, what does that make you?"

At that question, Kurapika could feel his mind try and reel on what he could be to this little girl, running through possible titles that could be attributed to his status but it all short circuited when she spoke again.

"But you're also Uncle Cro's boyfriend so…"

"Taj!" Shalnark's voice was heard behind Kurapika, but the blonde didn't even turn to look at his cousin, he just stood there stunned with his face gradually becoming hotter and hotter as the seconds ticked by.

"I'm so sorry for that Kurapika, I don't think she-"

"It's fine." Kurapika managed to croak out, waving a hand dismissively at Shalnark, trying to conceal how flustered he was from Taj's observation of him and Chrollo. His cousin seemed skeptical a bit but didn't push the conversation further, instead nudging Feitan in the shoulder to get his attention.

"Actually, isn't it past the little princess's bed time?"

Feitan gave him a quizzical look before he took the hint, smiling when he did.

"Oh my, it seems you are right!" Feitan said exaggeratedly, looking at Taj sideways. She giggled in response and hid behind him, only for Phinks to swoop her up and hold her in his arms.

"Come on Taj, it's time to say goodnight to everyone!" he said cheerily, Taj squirming in his arms in protest. Phinks walked off with her to the other people in the living room, letting her say her goodnights to everyone.

"I guess that couldn't have been avoided huh?" Chrollo said, scratching at the back of his neck.

Feitan chuckled darkly at the comment.

"Probably not, but don't worry, this won't get out to anyone, brother. Unless…" he said, looking over at Kurapika, "it ends up progressing in that direction."

Kurapika felt his face heat up again but forced his face into a frown.

"That's quite unprofessional to imply." he accused slightly, earning laughter from Chrollo and Shalnark.

"Yeah Fei, chill!" Shalnark said, slapping the other's back. "Besides, _my_ cousin marrying _your_ brother? What are the odds that _that'll_ happen?"

"Whoa, who said anything about marriage?" Chrollo asked incredulously, their joking seeming to get to him now as well.

"Yeah, I thought this was about us dating?" Kurapika added on, only for them all to look over at him.

"So you _are_ dating?" Feitan asked slyly, and Kurapika instantly regretted his word choice.

"No! Not- no, definitely not! That's…" Kurapika looked over at Chrollo, noticing that he was looking back at him. He lost his trail of thought when he stared back for too long, shaking his head to get out of whatever trance he had been in. "You know what I mean Feitan; you two are the ones changing the subjects here!"

Feitan just shrugged with a smile on face.

"Okay, whatever you say."

Shalnark just smiled apologetically, about to say something until Kurapika felt a small hand on his face.

"Night night Uncle Pika." Taj said when Kurapika looked at her, seeing that she worn out already.

"Goodnight Taj."

"Night night Uncle Cro." Taj proceeded sleepily, as Phinks took her over to Chrollo.

"Night Taj, sweet dreams!" he said back, and she mumbled something as she wiped at her eyes, getting taken from the room as she did.

"Shal, you're gonna have to tell me how I unknowingly became an uncle." Kurapika said when the young girl and Phinks were out of sight. "I think that'd more than make for the embarrassment I've endured thus far today."

"Ha! You never were one to let small stuff like that go were you? Anyway, I'll tell ya about it later on another day alright? For now just enjoy the fact that it's Christmas Eve!" Shalnark said, patting him on the shoulder.

Kurapika nodded as he watched his cousin and Feitan walk out of the room to follow where Phinks went, making him pause.

"Isn't that where your room is?" Kurapika asked Chrollo as he was lead over to the living room where more people awaited to meet him.

"Yeah, I gave up my room so those three plus Taj could sleep together. Only bed big enough in this house to do that with." Chrollo said, smiling.

Kurapika nodded absent mindedly, then got introduced to everyone else left in the room. Uvogin and Nobunaga apparently both worked in the same business, though he couldn't remember what exactly they did, but they both seemed quite friendly. Bonolenov was a freelance musician and seemed to be a very eccentric man with more piercings than the blonde had ever seen on a human before. Kortopi was a small guy who seemed kind and gentle, and though he said he was in the copying business, Kurapika couldn't help but feel like it had less to do with printers and fax machines and more to do with black market replicas of rare items. Shizuku was forgetful, as she had first stated when she met him, but was very intelligent when Kurapika briefly talked to her. And last but not least, Franklin, who was intimidating to look at but pleasant to converse with, and said that he worked at a small gardening shop near his house.

By the time all the introductions had ended, Kurapika felt more tired than he would've liked to admit. Chrollo had asked if he was alright but he had brushed it off, not really wanting to seem rude by being knackered by that time.

"So, what do you think of my family? Not all too bad, no?" Chrollo asked then, leaning against the bar counter as Kurapika piled a plastic plate full of whatever was in front of him.

"They're definitely mismatched." The Kurta confirmed, adding two slices of ham to his plate. "But despite that, they are very lively and play off of each other well. It's a family I could certainly find myself getting used to." He continued, turning around as he did to see Chrollo's pleased face.

"You think so?"

"Would I lie to you?"

"Maybe?" Chrollo joked, earning him an elbow in the shoulder.

"I would _not_ and you know it."

"Oh, right right, of course, I forgot how reliable you are when you forget to even eat your own lunch sometimes." Chrollo teased, moving away from Kurapika in time to avoid getting swatted at.

"But I get stuff done." the blonde said, pointing a plastic fork at him. "Early, nonetheless."

"I'm complaining about how you take care of yourself, not your work." Chrollo laughed, grabbing himself a can of cola from the fridge. "Other than that though, your achievements are greatly appreciated in the office, despite some disdained looks you get from finishing everything so quickly."

Kurapika tried to force a frown at that but found he really couldn't, instead smiling as he shook his head.

"Of course."

After that, they both stood there in a comfortable silence as Kurapika ate and the sounds from the living room continued to sound rambunctious, simmering down to lower volumes as the time went on. Soon people started heading off, the first to leave being Phinks, who said they had a government job and wanted to be back in their home state for a while before their break ended.

The second person to leave was Kortopi, who said he had a few jobs to do and was just going to leave early just in case. He ended up taking a few Christmas cookies with him.

The third set to leave was Pakunoda, Machi, and Shizuku, who had rented a hotel nearby, and were going to head back before it got too late. They said their individual goodbyes, Pakunoda winking at Kurapika when she did, and then they left.

After that, everyone started to clean up the living room and kitchen area, Kurapika helping where he could. He put leftover food in plastic containers, put away the extra silverware, plates, and cups, and even helped clean off the countertops and did a few dishes.

"You didn't have to stay behind and help Kurapika." Chrollo had said when he came over to take over doing the dishes.

"Nonsense. You invited me over, the least I can do is help clean up." Kurapika said waving him off as he dried his hands. "Besides, the longer I stay away from home, the better."

"Really?" Chrollo asked, raising an eyebrow before turning to look at the clock on the microwave. "It's already one, isn't that late enough?"

Kurapika only answered with a shrug, walking out of the kitchen area to observe the living room where Bonolenov had set up camp on the couch, and Uvogin and Nobunaga chatted next to the coffee table, seeming about ready to head off to bed any time now.

"Did you even bring your phone?" he heard behind him, which he barely acknowledged with a slight tilt of his head.

"Nope."

"Shutting yourself off from your problems?"

Kurapika frowned then, but didn't look away from the living room.

"Maybe."

"Want to stay the night then?"

"Ye- wait what?" Kurapika turned to look at Chrollo who was smiling as he finished the last dish, drying his hands as he made his way over to the blonde.

"Well, you said the longer the better right? And I may not have much room here, but I can certainly provide you with another day's cover if you need it."

Kurapika felt so relieved when Chrollo said that, he almost accepted immediately. Then his mind started reeling, forcing out a mumble about not wanting to intrude in on Chrollo's space, but was stopped by the older man shaking his head.

"It's not a problem at all! Plus, we still haven't seen if you'll fall for Taj's charms yet." he said with a casual tone.

"Ah, well, I suppose if it's not any trouble then…"

"It's not! Though, there are limited sleeping areas, so you could take the guest bedroom next to the hall bathroom."

"Thank you but, if that's all that's left where are you sleeping?" Kurapika asked as Chrollo started guiding him to the extra guest room.

"Originally I was sleeping in the room I'm giving you, but I think I'll be fine. I have a sleeping bag in the closet I can use and-"

"No, that's unfair to you." Kurapika said, halting in front of the guest bedroom door. "I'll use the sleeping bag, you keep the bed. This is your house after all, and you already gave up your own room-"

"But you're a guest, so you get first priority in things like this." Chrollo insisted, opening the door and pushing the blonde gently inside. "Besides, I don't think a day on the floor is going to kill me." he joked, making the blonde roll their eyes.

"Hey yo Chrollo!" Kurapika recognized the voice as Nobunaga's. "Uvo and I are going to bed now! Night!"

"Goodnight you two!" Chrollo called after them, and that's when the idea struck Kurapika. It was an embarrassing idea, to him at least, but it was a compromise that wouldn't make the blonde feel as guilty about it afterwards.

"You will sleep in the bed," Kurapika said to Chrollo, who looked like he was about to argue back but stopped when the Kurta held up a finger, his face surely tinged in pink now. "And… I will too. We'll just be on separate sides though! That way we both have a bed to sleep on and no one has to use the sleeping bag!"

Chrollo stared at him a bit wide eyed before he threw up his hand to his mouth to stifle some laughter.

"That works out fine, of course." he said finally, straightening his posture and walking past Kurapika and into the room, flipping on the lights as he made his way over to a basket of clothes. "Here, take this for sleepwear, since this is all I really have in this room." he said, throwing an oversized shirt at the blonde.

Kurapika nodded and went to the other side of the bed, sitting on the ground next to it in order to strip himself of his normal clothes and to toss on the shirt he was given. He breathed in and out, trying to tell himself that it was just like a sleepover, but instead of with a friend, it was with a coworker. _You've done this before you big dummy, what's the difference this time? If anything you won't have a sore back from sleeping awkwardly on a couch!_ Kurapika disgruntledly accepted that his thoughts were right but determined he didn't have to feel any better about the situation because of them.

He got up and slid into the bed, turning his back on the dark haired man immediately. He heard a chuckle behind him but ignored it as the lights turned off. He felt the bed dip next to him but then after that it was motionless besides a toss or a turn every now and then. He let go of the breath he was holding and finally relaxed, beginning to feel himself drifting off when Chrollo's voice came.

"It sort of occurred to me just now but, don't you have family to spend the holidays with?"

Kurapika didn't have much energy to really answer, and less so to even feel offended. It was a question normal people would ask if they saw him alone in public on any holiday, be it New Year's or Thanksgiving or even St. Patrick's Day. There was no reason to be angry at others for not knowing why he never associated with them.

"No, not really." he replied sleepily. "I've… kind've been kicked out, you could say."

There was silence after that, and Kurapika assumed the conversation was over until he heard the older man's voice again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"I know, that's why you asked." Kurapika said turning around to lay on his other side, which consequently lead him to end up looking at Chrollo. "And it's okay, nothing much that could be done there anyway."

Chrollo nodded in understanding before smiling sleepily a bit.

"I think I forgot to tell you, but merry Christmas to you too."

Kurapika smiled back, before mumbling an amused "Go to sleep." and closed his eyes, his mind drifting away until everything was black and peaceful.

* * *

 _I hope this was worth the wait! Also, I would like to point out that Kurapika and Taj are technically first cousins once removed, but for the sake of simplicity, Kurapika will be referred to as Taj's "uncle" and Taj will be referred to as Kurapika's "niece"!_

 _Thank you for your patience and support!_


	6. Pancakes and Presents

_Hey guys! I meant to update on Christmas day but got super busy and I totally forgot about all of this, but think of this as a gift for the new year! Anyway, I hope this next chapter is enjoyable!_

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It was early in the morning, way earlier than Kurapika was really willing to wake up at, but he guessed that that sentiment wasn't shared with the tiny menace that was currently sitting at the end of the bed, jumping up and down.

"Come on Uncle Cro! Play with me!"

Kurapika heard Chrollo grunt, making him almost jolt out of bed. He had forgotten he was there, having tuned out Taj's whining minutes ago as if also tuning out the fact that he was still at his boss's house. The blonde opened his eyes to meet Chrollo's. The dark haired man offered a sheepish smile as he mouthed the word 'sorry.' Kurapika shook his head to dismiss it when Taj pushed at the other's leg.

"Uncle Cro, I know you're awake!"

"Taj, it's five in the morning." Chrollo croaked, the feeling of the bed shifting as he looked at the time. "Why are you even in here?"

"Baba said you'd play with me." Taj pouted, crawling up closer to the top of the bed to shake the older man. "Come on! I'm bored!"

Kurapika heard Chrollo sigh in defeat and mutter something about strangling Feitan. He started to turn out of bed when the blonde put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. He looked at Kurapika in confusion but all the younger man did was shake his head, sitting up as he started to speak to the young girl.

"Taj I'll play with you, just give me a minute and I'll be right out okay?"

"Really?" Taj asked excitedly, jumping up and down on the bed.

"Yes, really. Now get going, I gotta get dressed first."

"Alright!" Taj said, bouncing off the bed and excitedly running back out of the room. It only took a few seconds after she left before Chrollo spoke up.

"You didn't have to do that." he started, pushing himself up onto an elbow.

"No, I did." Kurapika said, pushing the older man back onto the bed. "You need to sleep in, I'll keep her entertained."

"You shouldn't have to take care of her, she's not even-"

"Actually, she's my niece through Shalnark, so _yes,_ I do." Kurapika corrected as he slid out of the bed and found his pile of clothes from the day before. He started to put them on when he paused, letting a smile slip onto his face. "By the way, Merry Christmas."

"Again?"

"Well yesterday was Christmas Eve, so unless we slept in for a whole day, today _would_ be Christmas."

"Ah, you're right. Kind of forgot since Taj got a few presents early yesterday."

"Mm-hmm."

"You don't care do you?"

"No, I'm totally interested, it's just an ungodly time to wake up in the morning during break."

"Ditto."

"Then go back to bed idiot."

"Of course Your Highness."

Kurapika snorted at his comment, slipping out of the room and closing the door quietly after him only to be met with Taj staring up at him.

"Are you mad at me?"

Kurapika blinked at her then raised an eyebrow.

"For what?"

"For yesterday, about you being Uncle Cro's boyfriend. Papa said that what I said was rude…"

"Don't worry about it Taj, you didn't know the situation-"

"But are you?"

Kurapika paused, glancing back at the door before turning back to smile at her.

"It doesn't matter. Did you have anything in particular that you wanted to play?"

Taj's face lit up as she nodded, dragging Kurapika out into the living room and pointing at the now overflowing amount of presents under the tree. Kurapika wonder when someone actually put them there.

"Taj not yet, we gotta wait till everyone else is awake." he said, wondering if that's all she had had in mind for her 'playing.'

She looked at him as if to ask if he was really going to stop her, but she seemed to not want to test it right then when she noticed Bonolenov's sleeping form on the couch.

"Then what else do we do?" she whispered, grabbing ahold of Kurapika's pants as she did. He smiled at her, but really, he had no idea how to play with a kid. At all. Sure he had been _friends_ with kids at one point, but that was also when he was a kid as well, and they definitely hadn't been this young when he met them anyway.

"What do you find fun?" Kurapika asked her, and she shrugged, staring at the Christmas tree absentmindedly.

"Finding things, I guess." she replied after a while, turning to Kurapika when she did. "What about you?"

He smiled weakly at the question, not sure if 'office work' counted as something fun, before he came up with an idea.

"Taj, how would you like to make something with me?"

"Make what?" she asked, tilting her head to the side as Kurapika led her over to the kitchen.

"Breakfast of course." he said, watching her eyes light up at the prospect of it. "It may be early, but I'm sure everyone will appreciate it."

"It'll be like a present to them!" Taj pointed out, and Kurapika nodded along with it.

"Yeah, like a present. You can find the items needed and I'll cook!"

"Can I help cook if I do a good job finding stuff?" she asked excitedly, bouncing next to him as he began making a mental list of what they would need.

"Of course." he said smiling. "Now, what do you think about pancakes?"

After a few long minutes, Kurapika and Taj had gathered all of the cooking materials in one place, even getting out the remaining plastic plates and silverware from the night before out so that they wouldn't have to do it afterwards. An hour or so later and Kurapika was sure that if everyone in the house hadn't woken up with how loud the cooking process was, then they were certainly awake due to the smell of the food. His own stomach was growling at the prospect of even eating it, but he refrained from doing so.

The first person to greet them was Bonolenov, who mumbled a Merry Christmas towards them, only to stop at the sight of them cooking food.

"You guys.. are making breakfast?"

"Yeah! Uncle Kura suggested it!" Taj said, almost hitting Kurapika with the spoon she was holding. The blonde sighed at her comment, feeling embarrassed just by being the one who started it.

"Wait, are those pancakes?" he asked, walking closer to get a look at them. "You already have a whole plate full, and you even have the bacon ready… how long have you guys been working on this?"

"Since five." Kurapika answered, ignoring the incredulous look he knew he had gotten from the musician.

"Damn, that's early. And it's-" he glanced at the microwave, "seven now. Chrollo wasn't joking when he said you were an overachiever."

"Do you think it's late enough to where we can wake everyone else up without them being angry?" the blonde inquired, ignoring the blush he felt threatening to creep onto his face at the fact that Chrollo had talked about him to his makeshift family.

"Hmm, well for food I don't think they'll mind. I'll go get the others!" Bonolenov said, making a move to leave the kitchen, only to pedal back to get the coffee machine working. After he'd done so he poked Kurapika in the shoulder, getting his attention once more.

"Want to see how I can only wake up one person but get everyone else up too?" Bonolenov inquired with a smile, and Kurapika raised an eyebrow at him.

"This isn't magic is it?"

"No, nothing like that. Just gotta wake up the right person." he snickered, half jogging to the other guest bedroom that Kurapika and Chrollo weren't occupying. The blonde shrugged and turned back to his work only to be jolted out of his cooking trance by Uvogin yelling a very loud "HELL YES!" and "MOTHERFUCKING PANCAKES!" With that, it was followed by the groans by all else who resided in the house as Bonolenov came jogging back looking pleased with himself.

"See?"

"I more heard than anything else…" Kurapika responded rubbing at one of his ears.

Bonolenov snickered beside him, letting Taj run past him as she saw Uvogin emerge.

"Uvo! Uvo! You're so loud!" she said, going over and hugging his leg. He laughed in response, patting her head as he did.

"Oh, sorry Taj, pretend you didn't hear all those naughty words." he said smiling her, and she nodded.

"I heard nothing!" she assured, and Uvogin nodded when she did.

"Good."

"Well I sure did." Nobunaga complained, walking out of the room, patting Uvogin on the back in annoyance. "I know you love pancakes you big bulking Hawaiian, but if you could tone it down in the morning that'd be great."

Uvogin laughed at his friend, pulling him into a hug around the neck.

"Alright alright, I won't try to do it again! No promises though." he said, winking at Bonolenov, who gave him a thumbs up in return. At that, Uvogin walked over to Kurapika's side to inspect the food he was cooking. "They're not all that fluffy, but they work." was all he mumbled before he turned to look around the area. "Is the boss sleeping in?" he asked to no one in particular, but Kurapika answered him regardless.

"I told him to, though God knows if you woke him up or not." Kurapika teased, glancing sideways at Uvogin's slightly surprised look. "Taj would've kept him up till now had I not interfered."

"You got him to sleep in? That's a miracle in itself blondie!" Uvogin said after a pause, ruffling his already messed up hair. "Haha, what did you do to convince him to stay in bed? Did you promise him breakfast?"

"No, he promised me he'd kick my ass if I didn't go back to sleep." Chrollo said from the otherside of them, making them both jump and Kurapika squeak a little bit in surprise. Chrollo raised an eyebrow at the noise but said nothing else as he grinned at them amusedly, obviously entertained that he had scared them.

Kurapika decided he didn't like Chrollo's smug face and pointed the spatula at him threateningly.

"And I will if you sneak up on me like that again." Kurapika said, sounding a little less than convincing when he took note of how close their faces were, his mind reminding him instantly of the kiss he and Chrollo had shared at the holiday party. He quickly turned his face back to what he was doing with the food, letting his hair fall in his face as he berated himself for _thinking_ of such a thing like that. _Why did you bring that up, are you_ trying _to kill yourself from embarrassment? And it's not like it_ meant _anything, right? Making a big deal over nothing Kurapika, like always. Good job there, really impressive._

Kurapika frowned, forcing away the blush that had appeared at some point and focused on finishing the food, directing Uvogin and Chrollo out of kitchen despite the larger ones complaints of being hungry. He shushed him, giving them both a final push towards the snickering group of lingering family members as Taj rejoined him in the kitchen, placing her hands on her hips as she tried to examine the food on the counter as if she were a judge in a food competition.

"What do you think about the food chef?" she asked, eyes glinting amusedly. Kurapika cracked a smile at her.

"I'm not sure, would you like to have the first taste?" he asked back, and she grinned cheekily at him before nodding her head quickly.

"Yes!" she chirped, moving closer to the counter as Kurapika laughed softly, preparing her a plate and handing it to her, watching her chew slowly before scooping in more food into her mouth despite not having even finished her first bite. "Itch goof!" she said through the food in her mouth, turning to everyone else who was waiting outside the kitchen. "Come getch your foof!"

At the invitation, everyone swarmed into the kitchen, laughing at Taj and thanking her and Kurapika for making the food. Kurapika tried to get out of everyone's way, but was pulled into a then formed line by Chrollo, who made a comment about him needing to eat too.

"I do not." Kurapika said back out of pure stubbornness, only to feel his stomach rumble at his own comment.

"You sure? 'Cause last I check people need to eat to survive."

"I can go without for a few days…" Kurapika protested, only to have Chrollo raise a thin eyebrow at him.

"If you want to go starve yourself on your own time, then sure, but since you _are_ still technically my guest, I'm going to make sure you at least eat something."

"Oh, so you're one of those hosts; the one who feeds everyone that walks through your door?" Kurapika questioned, grabbing a plate and putting food on it as he continued to bicker.

"Hey, it's not a bad thing." Chrollo said, smiling. "But then again, you also made the food. You should have some of it."

"I can't believe you." Kurapika said shaking his head as he smiled back. "You'll say anything you have to to get me to eat, _even though_ I've already started getting food."

"Just about," Chrollo nodded, giving him a not so subtle wink. "And it worked didn't it?"

"Pfft, as if." Kurapika said back, elbowing him. "Anyway, after this I should probably head out so I can get out of the way of all of this." he said motioning to the people eating around them, wanting to avoid a confrontation about leaving.

"Wha- you're not in the way!" Chrollo protested with a look that was eerily similar to a pout. "You get along great with everyone and have made things run a lot smoother than they normally would've this morning. They're all grateful."

"But-"

"Plus, you have yet to open your present."

Kurapika paused at that, turning to look at Chrollo's face.

"My what?"

"Your present." Chrollo said, taking in Kurapika's expression as another smile made its way across his face. "You didn't think I'd forget did you?"

"No, I just- I wasn't expecting it at all-"

A loud knock at the front door interrupted Kurapika's stuttering mess of a sentence, and for once he was glad for it. Chrollo went and got the door to let in Pakunoda, Machi, and Shizuku, who all came in carrying more presents to be added to the place under the tree. Kurapika doubted they would have enough room to fit all of the new additions there.

"Oh, well isn't this lovely?" Pakunoda asked, quickly flashing a smile at Kurapika in a way that unnerved him. "I'm glad we did some last minute shopping when we went back. Did you know you have a 24 hour mall around here?"

"I wasn't aware." Chrollo responded back, helping take some of the presents from Pakunoda's arms. "Why don't you guys get some breakfast though? Kurapika made it with some help from Taj!"

Kurapika saw Machi's eyebrows arch but made no further comment, letting Pakunoda do the talking.

"We shall in just a moment, first let's get these to the living room."

"Of course."

Chrollo and the rest of them walked away from the kitchen area, allowing Kurapika to quickly eat what food he had put on his plate before throwing it away just as the girls returned to the kitchen. He stepped to the side to let them walk past him easily, but while Machi and Shizuku went on ahead to the food, Pakunoda stopped and smiled at him. He did his best to smile back.

"Did I ever tell you what my talent is?" Pakunoda asked him, and he felt his forced smile falter as he let his face shift into confusion.

"I don't believe so."

"I happen to be very good at guessing people's emotions and thoughts on certain things, even if they don't know it themselves." she said, her eyes glinting as she did. "And the truth never escapes me for long."

Kurapika had no idea if that was a threat or not, but she walked away from him at that moment, leaving him to watch after her with his mouth hanging open quite uselessly. He quickly composed himself after that and retreated to the living room before Pakunoda could confront him again.

During the time that the girls ate in the kitchen, Kortopi and Franklin showed up with a few more presents to add to the already ginormous pile of gifts that spread out from under the tree. Kurapika hadn't recalled Franklin leaving, but figured he had probably left after he and Chrollo had gone to bed.

It only took a few more minutes after that to get everyone into the living room, people sitting on the couches, either squeezing tightly next to each other or letting others sit on their laps, and the rest of family scattered on randomly pulled chairs from the dining table or on the floor.

Unwrapping presents started with sorting out all of the presents and handing them to their owners, Taj having the largest pile of anyone there. Everyone let her go first, intent on seeing her reactions to every single present. Taj ended up receiving a lot of new clothes, toys, and even a few books, all of which she seemed thrilled to get. After she was done with her presents, everyone started opening theirs at once and sharing what they had gotten to the person next to them, occasionally letting Taj help them unwrap the boxes and cheerful "Thank you!"s being half-shouted across the room.

Kurapika looked down at his own collections of presents, which he was surprised he even had any. A total of five small boxes sat on his lap, all of which he had no earthly idea of what they could be. He turned to look at Chrollo wearily, who was sitting next to him on the couch and was managing to look less disappointed than happy to receive his second sweater of the night. Kurapika poked his shoulder to get his attention, Chrollo giving him a curious look as his eyes flicked between Kurapika's face and the boxes still on his lap.

"What's wrong? You haven't opened any of your presents yet." Chrollo asked, a little concern leaking into his sentence. Kurapika smiled awkwardly.

"Nothing's wrong, I just… why did anyone get me something? Not even you should have gotten me anything."

"Why shouldn't I have?" Chrollo asked, genuinely confused. Kurapika sighed.

"Because you didn't even know if I was going to show up, and none of them knew if I was going to be coming either. I don't even have anything to give back to any of you."

"If this about you feeling like a burden, then that's not it. You're part of this family, no matter how weirdly configured it is, and so they're more than willing to get you even just a small gift so that you feel welcomed."

"But those feelings could change." Kurapika started to protest, trying to keep his voice quiet. "People can say they care for you all they like until they find out that you're not who they thought you were." he stopped, casting his eyes down as if it would allow him to shut everything off around him. "Nevermind, pretend I said nothing."

Chrollo shifted next to him but the blonde didn't look up at him, nor did he acknowledge the poking at his shoulder until it became insistently annoying. He looked up to see Shalnark beckoning him to follow him so he complied, abandoning the presents he had received and trying hard to ignore the stare he could feel on his back.


	7. Family Business

_Hello everyone! I'm sorry I've been putting this off, I've been super busy! But I promise I haven't forgotten about this fic! Or any of the others! Just don't have a lot of time for writing anymore, but I will continue fighting! In the meanwhile, since finals are coming up, here's an early present for all of you all who need that extra boost of motivation to get through the end of the semester!_

* * *

Kurapika followed Shalnark into Chrollo's room with mixed feelings of regret and uneasiness, letting his cousin shut the door behind him as he made his way to sit on the bed.

"So, I got a call from my parents," Shalnark prefaced when Kurapika had sat down. "They didn't seem too pleased that you were here."

Kurapika frowned.

"They're not easy to please."

"Kurapika, they told me to get away from you or to kick you out of the house. What happened?" Shalnark asked, looking worried. "They said that you would taint me, but that doesn't make any sense given that you are most _definitely_ not the _worst_ family member in the clan, and you and I _both_ know that."

"Shalnark, do you remember when I called you a week after my graduation party a few years ago?" Kurapika asked, ignoring his cousin's last comment and keeping his eyes to the ground. "Do you remember what I said?"

Shalnark paused, frowning slightly before nodding.

"...yeah, I do. It was that the family couldn't be trusted with any secrets. I still don't understand what that meant exactly, but it was ominous enough that I haven't told them much after that… What made you say that?"

"You probably weren't told for whatever reason, but at the graduation party I was exiled from the family upon popular vote." Kurapika said solemnly, risking a glance at Shalnark's face, taking in how his cousin's jaw had gone slack.

"You- why would they-"

"Because I was myself. Because I felt like they were ready to know, but I was wrong."

"...I don't understand."

"Shal," Kurapika sighed, locking gazes with the other. "I told them I was gay."

Shalnark was shocked into silence, his mouth opening and closing many times before forming into a circle as he slowly exhaled air.

"Oohh, oh so that's what you meant… oh, I'm… I'm so sorry I didn't know…"

"It's okay, I didn't expect you to."

"But Kurapika, to _estrange_ you? Why were- no, why are they so upset about it?"

"Because to them that means I wouldn't be carrying on the Kurta name, and they're pissed about it." Kurapika said almost bitterly, looking back down at his hands in his lap. "Besides, they didn't even listen to what I said completely about the subject."

"Well, what did you originally say?"

"That I was within the asexual range with a preference for men if I ever had to find a romantic interest if at all, and _all_ they took from what I said was the fact that I kind of liked guys." the blonde sighed, holding his head in his hands. "I haven't even been able to talk with my mother since then."

"Aunt Anahita?"

Kurapika gave a nod.

Shalnark stayed silent for a while and Kurapika didn't even bother to see what he was doing until he heard him speak.

"Don't yell at me jeez- yes, he is, now can I finish talking to the rest of the family?" Silence. "No, I don't want to talk to him right now, not after he yelled like that… I don't care what he said he'll just have to wait. Could you please give the phone to Aunt Ana please?"

Before Kurapika could register what Shalnark was doing, Shalnark shoved his phone into his cousin's hands.

"I'll be outside." was all Shalnark said before retreating out of the room, closing the door swiftly behind him.

Kurapika looked at the door for a while before he picked up the phone and put it to his ear, wondering if the other person had waited long.

"Shalnark, are you even there?" he heard someone ask in an annoyed tone, though it wasn't one of malice, but endearment. Kurapika took a deep breath, letting it out shakily before speaking.

"...Mom?" Kurapika breathed out, surprised at how quiet his voice was, but his mother still heard him, gasping slightly. There was some muffled talking in the background and a few shouts but it started to fade, soon being nothing but the sound of someone walking on a hardwood floor. He waited till she spoke again, her voice having softened greatly, sounding almost sad.

"Kurapika… it's been such a long time since we've talked," she hesitated, sighed, then asked "How are you?"

"I'm fine," Kurapika said with half truth. "And you?"

"I'm… good."

She didn't sound confident in her answer, but Kurapika refused to challenge it. He let a silence stretch between them, not knowing what to say until she sighed again.

"I'm sorry." she said, sounding close to tears. "Ever since your graduation, I've regretted not being able to talk to you. You disappeared so quickly and you haven't even been home since then… I couldn't protect you when you needed it most and I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault mom. I'm not expecting you to walk away from your family for me."

"But Kurapika I _should_ have!" she said, sounding angry at herself. "You're my family too you know! And you trusted us with something that was so deeply apart of you and we rejected- no, _they_ rejected it and then they _banished_ you and then you _disappeared-"_

"Wait," Kurapika interrupted, "are you saying you voted against them?"

"Well _of course_ I did! Your father and I both did, as did Pairo! But no one else seemed to care! Augh! Just thinking about that night makes me furious!" Anahita said under her breath, as if trying to be quiet from eavesdroppers. "Also, I looked up what you told us about after the party, and honestly I think the misinterpretation was for the best."

"You mean the one about me being gay?"

"Yes. If they even had an inkling of what being asexual was I _doubt_ you would've gotten off with just banishment. This family is so unforgiving, I can't wait for when one of _their_ children end up being anything but what they want them to be and then are forced to banish _them-"_

"Mom, mom, relax. It's okay. It's over with; I'm okay, _you're_ okay, and it's for the best that I left."

"No, _that_ is _not_ the best. I'll tell you what, I can't wait till half of these geezers just drop dead, they just refuse to change and- oh! Did I tell you about how Pairo wanted to go to a public college and they chastised him and tried kept him under lock and key? Unforgivable!"

Kurapika paused. "They what now?"

"Oh goodness, that story will take a while, but let's just say those elders got their way! Well, mostly anyway. I was so proud for Pairo for trying to stick up for himself, but unfortunately not everyone here can appreciate a good rebellion when it happens!"

"Wait, so you're saying Pairo is still…"

"Oh no dearie! We, your father and I, we remembered what happened when we didn't do our damndest to fight for you, so we took on Pairo's battle. He's currently living with us and going to the college he wanted to go to, but that's put a strain on us between the family. We convinced them that having him exposed to the 'real world' would have him wanting to come back, but so far he's stayed there for two years and doesn't want to come home at all!"

Kurapika smiled, glad that his friend was able to have his freedom. "Thank you for doing that Mom."

"Don't mention it! He was practically like a son to us anyway with how much you brought him over, we don't mind! Though, we're still currently trying to make a case for you, to help bring you back-"

"No," Kurapika said abruptly, "I'm not going back. They won't change their minds about me, and I don't want to be walking around eggshells when I'm with them. I appreciate your efforts, but I think the separation from the main family was the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"You can't honestly think that…" Anahita said softly, though her words sounded hollow. "Kurapika, I understand that you don't want to, but if we are to not take this step into forcing them to accept you, I worry for anyone else who might be like you in the future."

Kurapika wanted to argue against it but knew that the suppression would continue to happen if no one challenged it. He took in a deep breath and let it go, not wanting to have to decide so soon.

"I'll think about it." Kurapika said eventually. "I just… I don't want to think about that right now."

He heard his mother sigh on the other side of the line followed by silence before she spoke again.

"Okay, that's fine. It's probably tough for you, after all of this time… You've probably adjusted somewhere without us… wait, how does Shalnark know where you're at? How did he find you?"

"What do you mean how?"

"The family put up measures to make sure no one from the clan could ever encounter you, but I guess they lost track of you some time ago."

"Wait, they were following me?" Kurapika asked incredulously, wondering how they could've ever managed it. Sure he had kept his surname but to know where he was at all times was a bit overboard.

"That's what I was told. Most weren't informed, but they said that we couldn't interact with you at all and that you would be constantly surveillanced in order to be aware of your movements, allowing for them to force avoidance from you." Anahita said, sounding rather miffed at the idea. "Always thought it was stupid. The inner council wouldn't even listen to how that was violating your privacy-"

"Mom, if you could, would you please find out some more information on that." Kurapika inquired, intrigued and concerned by the idea. "I want to know when and where they lost track of me. If that isn't too much to ask, that is."

"Of course not." Anahita said soothingly, shortly after coughing and then, with a change in her voice, continued. "Ah Shalnark, I'm so glad everything is going well! I'm going to have to pass over the phone now- oh? You're busy and can't talk anymore? Okay, I'll let them know! Goodbye!"

And with that, the phone line went dead, a long tone following afterwards. Kurapika let his hand drop to his lap, the phone showing that the call had ended and how long it lasted. He had a lot to think about, what with being tracked and being forced to never even see his family again. It was all a bit much, and Kurapika was tempted to just curl up and cry about it but suppressed the feeling when Shalnark knocked on the door.

"You doing alright in there cuz'?"

"Yeah, the call ended, by the way." Kurapika said, getting up when the door opened.

"Alright cool. I hope you enjoyed your talk with your mom. She was always so nice to me and-"

"Shalnark, did you know they're following me?"

Shalnark gaped at him, then closed his mouth and pressed his lips into a thin line. He closed the door behind him and leaned on it, taking the phone back from Kurapika when he was offered it.

"No, I didn't. But now I do." he said, watching as he flipped his phone over and over again in his hands. "Did your mom tell you this?"

"Yeah, she didn't say how, so I was going to wait till she got back with me on it."

"She doesn't have your number."

"But she has yours."

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room that didn't permeate from them, but from the situation of it all. They listened to the noises from outside the room, absorbed in their own thoughts until Kurapika spoke again.

"Mo- er. Anahita told me that they surveillanced me to make sure no one could meet me; that's why she was confused as to how you got in contact with me."

"That'd make sense." Shalnark said, shaking his head. "Still, they went a little too far with that. I'll help your mom out with searching for info and I'll get back to you with what we find."

"Alright. And also, as of right now, this stays between you and me." Kurapika clarified. "I don't want anyone, especially Chrollo, knowing about this."

"Understood." Shalnark nodded, placing hands on his hips. "We don't know who is tailing you, and having people be protective over you would only alert the clan that we know what they're doing, _especially_ since they know I accidentally made contact with you."

"Yup." Kurapika said, though he smiled at how quick Shalnark caught on. "You seem used to this."

"I play a lot of online games that have _lots_ of missions like this. This should be a piece of cake!" Shalnark grinned, giving the other a thumbs up. "And by the way, speaking of family, you did say you wanted to know how you became an uncle right?"

Kurapika blinked, having forgotten he had wanted to know but nodded, sitting down on the bed again when Shalnark walked over and plopped down next to him with a smile.

"Okay," Shalnark said. "Let's get started shall we?"


End file.
